Emily Temple's debut novel is a breathless, heavy and smothering take on adolescence and the weight of our beliefs--and I mean that in the best way possible.

With haunting and lyrical prose, The Lightness is about a young girl who - in the search for her father at a Buddhist retreat - comes across a group of girls who are trying to achieve levitation and becomes enthralled by the group's mysterious leader. Exploring themes such as child abuse, mental illness, sexual assault, and the dangerous bonds that can develop in spaces of isolation, this book is perfect for fans of Donna Tart or Jeffrey Eugenides.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Prologue
“Once, not so long ago, a woman on the street told me my fortune. She said it was it was good news: I’d live a long life. I’d be happy. Bouncing babies, etc. I was passed thirty by then, and I’d had these things on my mind. But there was a catch (well, isn’t there always?): You’ll never get your good, long life if you keep asking the wrong questions, the woman said. I wanted to know: Which question is the right question? She passed my fingers between her palms, my palms between her fingers. She said, Not that one. But I was only teasing her. I knew which question to ask”.

I liked much of this book- but I seriously felt it needed editing. And I’m not even one of those -‘editing-police-readers’.

The following quote sold me instantly:
“The Lighthouse” could be the love child of Donna Tartt and Tana French. but it’s savage. glittering magic is all Emily Temple”.
FANTASTIC MARKETING.....just don’t know it’s the truth!
However.....
Emily Temple ‘is’ a talented writer. This is a decent - often intriguing debut - but it didn’t hit the ball out of the park. But....there ‘were’ great moments.

We visit the Levitation Center...
There are ‘many’ sentences to pause and ponder throughout:
“Girls love to be unlike other girls, because of the lies we are told about what other girls are like”.

“Girls like us cannot be protected, we swore into one another’s palms and shoulder blades, girls like us cannot be saved. It’s the mistake everyone makes”.

“Even then she kept crying, harder and harder, hoping he would come to her, and after some time her body twisted and spread, her unmoving feet grew into the ground and her untouched, unloved skin crusted over and she became an enormous tree. You can see her from here, girls: The weeping willow that still hangs over the cliff’s edge”.

“At school, I told my classmates that I was a Buddhist— how my mother would’ve raged, had she known— but I couldn’t tell them exactly what that meant. But what do you actually do? They asked, obedient churchgoers all. We meditate, I said. So it’s just sitting around, they said. No, but I wasn’t sure. I couldn’t explain”.

“That’s Ava, she said”
“Ava?”
“Avalokitesvara, she said”.
“Named after the bodhisattva, the personification of perfect compassion”.

It was summer. All the girls were sick with desire.....
either for friendships, acceptance, their parents, or Luke, the steamy gardener,
The girls wanted beliefs, transcendence.
It was a summer of religious inquiry... spiritual inquiry...wanting enlightenment, wanting release, wanting connection.

“Now I prefer not to want. It is much more dignified. I guess I turned out to be a Buddhist after all”

A little too long -
But... there is beauty on every page....
It’s the type of book that needs to be digested slowly....

“I’m in love with the world through the eyes of a girl”

3.5 - rating up
Thank you HarperCollins, Netgalley and Emily Temple

This book has had a lot of hype, so I was anxious to read it. The writing was beautiful, especially keeping in mind that this is the author’s first book. The story just moved incredibly slow for me. There were pages and pages where nothing really happened. It’s unfortunate because the writing style was lovely and there were some beautiful phrases that I found myself reading multiple times. It was just too slow for me and felt long, even though it was less than 300 pages. I would read more by this author in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins Publishers for an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Lightness is a raw and open book about bonding when least expected. Definitely recommend this book!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

WOW! I am blown away. This was like Girl, Interrupted meets The Craft meets eastern enlightenment. I throughly enjoyed it; completely spellbinding.

Surprisingly raw and emotional novel. The characters were well developed. The pacing was a bit slow in places but it worked with the overall style and format.

The Lightness joins the ranks of recent novels that deal with the close bonds young girls form, and the uncanny which can accompany those relationships and the way they manifest. Temple creates an insulated little world from which to observe them, and though that observation is skewed by an unreliable narrator who knows she’s unreliable, watching them maneuver through their world and their friendships is still compelling. When Olivia addresses you as a reader it is disconcerting, which is what makes it so effective. The fact that both of Olivia parents are unsympathetic characters also adds to the tone the book is setting, set aside from the parental stand-ins who have significant roles, though less back story, making them much more satisfying.

The book did often have me opening up searches for various pieces of art, quotes, and historical figures, and those rabbit holes were pleasant journeys.

While I mostly enjoyed this book, I think I would have liked it more if it had been 100 pages shorter. Brevity might have made the frequent threats of “If we’d only known then what we know now” promising future revelations, more powerful, rather than “that old slog” (in the words of our narrator). What might have been profound begins to sound desperate. And the unreliable narrator bit is pushed a little too far in the conclusion. I understand she's inviting you to make your own assumptions, but too many options can be a hindrance, rather than a freedom.

Also: Queerbait.

I received an ARC of this title from NetGalley.